Word of The Day for Sunday, April 17, 2011

luculent

lu•cu•lent (LOO-kyoo-luhnt)  adj

Definition:
1. clear or lucid
2. convincing; cogent
3. bright or shining; glowing 

luculently adverb

Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English  from Latin luculentus  "bright", equivalent to luc-  (stem of lux ) "light" + -ulentus "full of"

Related:
Synonyms: comprehensible, intelligible, lucid, pellucid, perspicuous, transpicuous, unambiguous
Related Words: corpulent

Sentence Examples:
• We shall know at any rate that to Grumkow, in the Autumn 1731, these words were luculent and significant: consciously they tell us something of young Friedrich; unconsciously a good deal of Lieutenant-General Schulenburg, who with his strict theologies, his military stiffnesses, his reticent, pipe-clayed, rigorous and yet human ways, is worth looking at, as an antique species extinct in our time. - History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Thomas Carlyle

• The thundering acclamations, which greeted the close of that luculent and powerful exposition, the zeal with which the concourse hailed him unanimously Savior of Rome and Father of his country, the eagerness of affection with which all ranks and ages thronged around him, expressing their gratitude and their devotion, by all means imaginable, proved satisfactorily that, whatever might have been the result had massacre, plunder, and conflagration fallen upon them unawares, the vast mass of the people were now loyal, and true to their country.  -The Roman Traitor, Henry William Herbert

• I have heard, for example, a luculent description of poor Allister Campbell, and another drudge of the same class, running a race after dinner for a new pair of breeches, which Mr. David Bridges, tailor in ordinary to this northern potentate,--himself a wit, a virtuoso, and the croupier on that day in lieu of Rigdum,--had been instructed to bring with him, and display before the threadbare rivals.  - Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, John Gibson Lockhart

Sources: Dictionary.com, Free Dictionary

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